why ?

Aug 16, 2002

Why are some people able to obtain a truly 0 reading with meds and other's are coined "undetectable" even though the have a small amount of virus floating around?Does this mean that someone with a low level (say 30 copies) is not going to fair as well when put head to head with the true "zero"? Finally since each test is just one point in time is it possible that you can be zero sometimes but other times for whatever confounding reason a little virus show up now and then? Do you think we will ever have true zero tests to use on antibody positive people? Thank you Greatly

Response from Dr. Holodniy

Sorry. I can't answer the why question. We don't have enough data, nor assays accurate enough to measure down to zero, to assess whether zero patients do better than 30 copy folks or what the variability at that level is.

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